Thousands of visitors are expected to attend this weekend’s Bethesda Row Arts Festival in downtown Bethesda, an annual event that’s being held a month earlier than the traditional timing for the largest juried art show in the Washington, D.C., region, according to organizers.
The work of 185 artists will be showcased in tents along Woodmont and Bethesda avenues, Elm Street and Bethesda Lane, east of Arlington Road. An additional block of art exhibitions has been added this year on Woodmont Avenue from Hampden Lane to Montgomery Avenue, according to a news release from the festival. The event is sponsored by Bethesda Row, Koons Motors, Calluna Flower Truck, Pella Mid-Atlantic Windows and Doors, and the Purple Line.
The free show will be held rain or shine from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m. Saturday and from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Sunday. According to organizers, the event, which is in its 26th year, typically attracts more than 25,000 visitors each year.
This year’s event will feature 82 artists who are new to the festival, 52 of whom live in the D.C. area. Artwork will span 14 adjudicated categories: ceramics, drawing/pastels, fiber/decorative, fiber/wearables, glass, graphics/printmaking, jewelry, metalwork, mixed media 2D, mixed media 3D, oil/acrylic painting, photography/digital art, sculpture, watercolor and wood.
Visitors will have the opportunity to talk with artists at their booths about the process and inspiration behind their work.
“Festivals like this give us the opportunity to connect. We often buy mass-produced home décor, or through online maker sites without knowing anything about the process or the person who created it,” festival director Jon Gann said in a news release. “Art festivals … allow people to bring meaning to the items that make their space a home. Come meet the artist behind the art that inspires you.”
The artists’ work will be juried by three local judges: Amy Cavanaugh, executive director at Maryland Art Place in Baltimore; Laurel Lukaszewski, a Prince George’s County-based sculpture and installation artist; and Andrew Wodzianski, a District-based interdisciplinary artist and professor of studio arts at the College of Southern Maryland, a community college based in La Plata.